Monique Lee, an educator with the California Bat Conservation Fund
(CBCF) a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of bats
will be our guest speaker at the March 11 meeting of the RBDA. The CBCF
is dedicated to dispelling widespread misconceptions about bats through
informative presentations and live-bat displays at schools, libraries,
museums, and community centers. CBCF also rescues and
rehabilitates injured and orphaned bats with a focus on returning bats
to the wild.

Her educational program consists of a lecture accompanied by a
PowerPoint presentation. After the lecture, there will be an
opportunity to meet some live native bats and learn about their species
natural history and what can be done to help them.

Amador Station Coming to
Bonny Doon and CalFire Coming to RBDA Meeting

While fire in the chaparral that surrounds us is as natural as can be,
it is a devastating threat to the rural character of Bonny Doon. Now
self-reliance is a core rural value, and for 30 years, Bonny Doon has
relied on the all-volunteer Bonny Doon Fire & Rescue (the Fire
Team). No single agency alone could meet a challenge like the Martin
Fire, which is why fire departments across the State have banded
together to create the mutual-aid and automatic-aid programs which
saved us as well as the residents of the Summit and Trabing fire areas.

The Fire Team has tried for the past three years to establish a Bonny
Doon Fire District in order to improve the level of fire and emergency
service here, under local control. The Fire Team’s proposal was
rejected on Sept. 22 by the Local Agency Formation Commission [LAFCO],
which has the authority to oversee the establishment, expansion, and
merging of all local service districts. LAFCO concluded that allowing
Bonny Doon to withdraw from County Fire (technically CSA 48; County
Fire is the system that organizes all fire departments which don’t have
their own districts) to form an independent fire district would cause
reductions in fire service elsewhere in the county, and hence denied
the Bonny Doon District application.

To improve local service, Supervisor Neal Coonerty in early January
sought support for a proposal to move a CalFire engine company from
Felton to Bonny Doon and establish an "Amador" station here. An Amador
station is a CalFire station which ordinarily would be fully staffed
only during fire season to protect watersheds from wildland fires, but,
under contract with local government, is staffed year round to protect
structures. Santa Cruz County previously had four such stations; Bonny
Doon will be a fifth.

The Fire Team, Friends of Bonny Doon Fire, and the RBDA Board supported
the idea, which was accepted by the Board of Supervisors in January,
and asked that CalFire consider alternatives to locating the Amador
station at the McDermott Station at Empire Grade and Felton Empire Rd.
On Feb. 10 the Board of Supervisors decided that, in time for the
beginning of fire season, the Amador station would be temporarily sited
at the McDermott Station, with staff housed in the adjacent house, and
equipment and office space in a temporary structure distinct from the
McDermott Station itself. In the long term, CalFire seeks to acquire
property elsewhere in Bonny Doon, and replace their Felton fire station
with a new permanent structure here. The Fire Team and Friends of Bonny
Doon Fire continue to pursue the goal of an independent local district.

At our March 11 RBDA meeting senior CalFire staff will give a short
presentation of their plans and discuss the prospects of the upcoming
fire season. Afterwards they will be available to answer questions.

Cemex Chromium(VI) Chapter Closes

On Jan. 26 Teri Copeland, Kurt Fehling, and Eric Winegar submitted to
the Santa Cruz County Health agency their final report on the
dimensions of the hexavalent Chromium [Cr(VI)] emission problem at
Cemex's Davenport plant. The following day the report was taken up and
approved by the County Board of Supervisors. The report is available in
various forms athttp://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/eh/Cr6_Final.htm

With respect to the extremely carcinogenic Cr(VI), the report found
that, after changes to the plant's processes to 1) change to iron ore
inputs which have lower concentrations of chrome; 2) add reducing
agents to the clinker cooking process; and 3) reduce dust in the
loading area, that the levels of airborne Cr(VI) from the plant were at
the very lower limits of detection, at most one-half the Proposition 65
warning levels that we have discussed in prior articles. Wipe tests in
a variety of settings within Pacific Elementary School, some dusty,
some clean, revealed that the Cr(VI) levels were consistent with the
background wipe samples collected at Bonny Doon Elementary, and upwind
at CalPoly Swanton Pacific Ranch, all of which were well below levels
of acceptable health risk formulated by all Federal and State
regulatory agencies. Cr(VI) levels in the soils were found to be
consistent with the background levels for local soil types.

Since the report was issued, the Monterey Bay Unified Air
Pollution Control District got a permanent new director in late
February, and once the transition is complete, the agency, with input
from outside scientists and from the community, will take up the task
of formulating new regulations for emissions from cement plants. In the
meantime, air monitoring continues into the indefinite future, and a
new site has been added to the array, in Newtown, on the opposite side
of the plant from the established sites. Most significantly, Cemex has
closed the plant for at least six months due to the desperate economics
of the construction industry.

While the Cemex plant was a significant point source, Cr(VI) is also
present in the exhaust from diesel and other fossil fuel engines. In
fact, the exposure from those sources are much greater along Mission
Street in downtown Santa Cruz than anywhere in Davenport, and the
exposure is about greater still in the San Francisco Bay region and
vastly greater in the LA Basin.

The greatest environmental impact from cement manufacture is not in
environmental toxins, though, but in carbon dioxide. The nature of the
central chemical reaction in a cement kiln is splitting the limestone,
calcium carbonate, into equal amounts of lime and carbon dioxide. In
other words, making a ton of cement releases a ton of carbon dioxide.
When in operation, the Cemex plant produces 800,000 tons of carbon
dioxide, an amount on par with the amount saved by all the hybrid
vehicles in Northern California!

City Council Undermines UCSC
Settlement

Some disturbing facts have emerged regarding the extension of Santa
Cruz City water and sewer services to UCSC’s Upper Campus.

A settlement of several lawsuits last August created a framework where
the City agreed to maintain neutrality in the service extension, and to
live up to the City voters’ overwhelming approval of a measure that
required UCSC, not the City, to file a request with LAFCO to extend the
services, which UCSC needs in order to expand to the pristine Upper
Campus.

In what appears to be a violation of that, the City has become a
co-applicant with UCSC. City Attorney John Barisone claims the City
legally had to be a co-applicant, while LAFCO Executive Director Pat
McCormick contradicts that. As a co-applicant, the City will fund half
of the anticipated multi-hundred thousand dollar cost of the EIR for
the service expansion, and will in effect be an advocate for the
service expansion. Community groups involved in trying to limit UCSC’s
growth, including the RBDA, have protested and are now considering what
to do about the City Council’s perfidy.

Mountain Lion Update

At the Jan. 14 RBDA meeting, Prof. Chris Wilmers of UCSC told
approximately 95 rapt Dooners more than we'd ever imagined could be
known about the mountain lions among us. Dr. Wilmers's
project, "to collect continuous movement and location data from each
animal," started last fall, and we were fascinated to hear about the
routes and habits—and many other kinds of information—of the four lions
who have so far been outfitted with telemetry collars.
At last report, Prof. Wilmers was waiting for a shipment of
collars. Now that these expensive pieces of equipment have
arrived, the team is again looking for 'new' lions. Chris's
research assistant, Paul Houghtaling <phoughta at ucsc.edu> (right) asks Bonny
Doon residents who are interested in helping to report sightings of
uncollared mountain lions. Please, if you see a lion, email Paul
with the location where you saw the magnificent creature.
Important details include: description of the animal, date and time and
detailed location of the sighting.

One privileged Bonny Doon family is supporting the project by providing
space for a chest freezer. When the Department of Public Works finds a
road-killed deer, they can haul it (in a body bag) to this freezer; it
will be retrieved when needed as lion bait.

At present there is "no big news", says Chris. But you can check
his website, for
updates and to look at the pictures. We'll keep you posted.

State Septic Regulatory
Constipation Continues

In 1999, Heal the Bay, a southern California environmental
organization, outraged by what the City of Malibu was allowing to leach
into surface and groundwater, began lobbying the state legislature for
uniform state regulations of On-site Waste-water Treatment Systems
(OWTS), aka septic tanks. They were able to gain the support of
legislators concerned about the inequities among counties in the
Central Valley, and AB885 was passed in 2000, which mandated the State
Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to formulate regulations to be
put into effect on January 1, 2004.

SWRCB staff, with little or no direction from the Board itself, but
nearly unanimous negative feedback from homeowners, realtors, local
environmental health directors, and regional water boards, finally
completed draft regulations last November. When the next to last
scheduled public workshop, in Santa Rosa, drew so many people wishing
to comment that Highway 101 was gridlocked for over an hour, the
workshop was cancelled and the comment period was extended from Feb. 9
to Feb. 23.

At that point, SWRCB chair Tam Doduc rescheduled the workshop and
postponed the final workshop until after Board Staff, under Board
direction this time, re-drafts the proposed regulations, taking into
account the public feedback which had been ignored for the past nine
years. In the meantime, Sierra foothills legislators are beginning the
process of repealing AB885.

If everyone wants to protect our water from sewage, why is there such
strong opposition? The consensus is that the proposed regulations are a
one-size-fits-all set of requirements that pay no attention to
geographical factors, successful existing regimes, and actual
measurement of impacts. To summarize some of the comments from the
California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health (CCDEH)
report: The proposed regulations impose considerable additional
requirements on all OWTS irrespective of past performance or favorable
site conditions. There is little accounting for the natural treatment
that takes place in soil under a properly designed OWTS and a lack of
flexibility for the local agencies and the Regional Boards to respond
to geographic and site-specific conditions that would permit alternate
methods of providing equally protective measures. The proposed
regulations would require that all property owners have their
systems tested every five years for a variety of parameters, many
unrelated to OWTS performance. The actual cost of implementation of
this program and its impact on rural counties is significantly
underestimated, with the property owners bearing the actual cost of
implementation.

Santa Cruz County currently has one of the strictest regimes of septic
regulation in the state, yet the proposed draft would impose additional
restrictions. Most onerous among these are the requirements that: all
wells and septic systems would have to be inspected every five years,
at an estimated cost of $325 per component (tank and leach field),
meaning $650 per home; all new and replacement systems would have to be
provided with telemetry over phone lines to allow continuous remote
monitoring; all new and replacement systems would have to be designed
by a certified professional engineer rather than a contractor at an
additional cost of roughly $4,000 per system; all new and replacement
systems would have to include an effluent filter which would require
annual professional cleaning; and winter groundwater levels would have
to be determined by continuous monitoring for the entire period from
Nov. 1 to Mar. 1. Providentially, since the County already has an
approved wastewater management plan in place, it could petition for a
county-wide waiver of the new regulations.

Particularly in our area, wells and septic systems are a critical part
of the water cycle, as the County learned in the 80s while studying a
proposal to extend sewers to the San Lorenzo Valley and discovered that
sewers would drastically reduce groundwater recharge and hence the flow
of the San Lorenzo River. Much of what the current AB885 draft seeks to
address is covered by commonsense care and maintenance:

Some recommendations for safe rural living:

• Your septic system is a living eco-system, so don't put volatile
chemicals, paint, grease, expired medicine, disposable diapers or other
difficult to decompose materials into it. Avoid using anti-bacterial
soap that will kill the micro-decomposers in your tank; you will also
avoid breeding harmful anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

• Have your system checked every three to five years and pumped when
either the combined thickness of the floating solid cap and the settled
sludge exceeds 1/3 of the total depth. This will preserve the leach
field, the most important component for water treatment, and the most
expensive to replace

• Have your well tested periodically, particularly if it is close to
your neighbors' leach fields, stables, chicken coops, etc. With proper
attention, your septic system can function problem-free for decades,
and we can easily surpass the water quality targets that AB885 aims to
achieve.

The beginning of the end of the
RBDA?

The RBDA is in serious trouble. We are rapidly becoming flat
broke. At the current rate, we will not be able to pay for
insurance or mail the Highlander in the fall of this year. A year ago
the board suggested we modify the membership period to have all
memberships expire at the end of January. The hope was that we could
announce in The Highlander that if your membership had expired, it was
time to ante up again, thus saving the extra expense of mailing out a
separate request to each individual. At the end of January 123
memberships expired, and to date very few have committed to renew. Even
if they all do renew their membership, we will not be in a financially
stable condition.

For over 50 years the RBDA has fought to keep Bonny Doon rural and
natural. We have fought to restrain RV parks and toxic goat farms
on the coast, strip malls at the airport, to limit quarry and cement
plant expansion, to support logging regulations, and to restrain event
centers and other commercial ventures that were not in keeping with the
rural nature of our community. We have worked hard to ensure that
you get your mail, that our roads are repaired, and to support fire
safety for our community, and we fostered the Bonny Doon Ecological
Reserve and many other community enhancing opportunities.

For 50 years groups of hard-working volunteers have kept our
neighborhoods beautiful and our environment clean. But we can't
continue to do it without your support.

The RBDA board took note at the January Annual Meeting that
approximately half of the folks who attended were not dues-paying
members. If you like our meetings, if you like this newsletter, and
most of all, if you like what the RBDA has done to maintain the
environment and the community of Bonny Doon, then please help out in
any way possible. If you are a member, please send a donation or
talk a neighbor into joining. If you aren't a member, please
consider joining. Twenty dollars isn't a lot to pay to keep your
corner of the world rural and natural.

Included in the print edition was a self-addressed envelope for your
use to help underwrite the objectives of the RBDA. Please help us
continue to serve our and your community.

Bonny Doon's voice in preserving our special quality of
life,
The Highlander, is mailed free to Bonny Doon residents prior to
the
RBDA General Meetings, which are usually held on second Wednesdays
of
January, March, May, July, September and November.
We encourage you to participate.

Send mail correspondence to the Highlander Editor at the
above
address,
or by email, below.

If you live in or own property within this district, roughly
from Empire
Grade to the ocean and from San Vicente Creek to the City of Santa Cruz
border, you are eligible to be an RBDA member.

Please support the RBDA!
Dues payments count for a full year from date received.
Dues mostly go for printing and mailing The Highlander,
your voice for keeping Bonny Doon rural and natural.
Those who make additional contributions qualify as: